Matt and Nick Jackson (the artists formerly known as Generation Me) are on a rampage! Well, not really. Anyone who knows anything about these two know that both are well-adjusted and relatively normal young men (a rare thing in wrestling these days, it seems.) Indeed, they're handled their exits from TNA with calmness and class. No dramatics or bad-mouthing or blaming everyone else for their problems. But that doesn't mean they're going to ignore slights, or leave criticisms unanswered, like when Rob Van Dam complained to the Miami Herald this week about disrespecful younger talent, and, while not naming any names, left little doubt as to whom he was talking about:
“I feel like I get respect, but not in that way,” Van Dam said. “I’m open to it. Most of the guys, I don’t know if they don’t feel welcome to ask me or any of the other veterans or what. That is probably an issue that we have is the young guys should ask some of the older guys. They should be saying, ‘Hey, watch my match. Let me know what I can improve on.’
“That never happens enough. Some of the young guys who are or were there, I don’t want to mention any names. There were two young guys who just left and looked like they were out of high school. The whole time they were there, they never introduced themselves or shook my hand. Things are way different than they used to be.”
"Two young guys who just left." Gee, who could that be? Not exactly something out of The Da Vinci Code, Rob. Needless to say, neither Matt or Nick were happy about this, and Matt wrote the following on his twitter:
"I never introduced myself to @therealrvd? Then who was that guy who wore jean shorts & Golds Gym tank-tops, that I met & always said hi to?I'm a 26 yr old, married man w/a child on the way & have been wrestling 8 yrs around the world. I'm not a kid but thx for the compliment!"
Nick also said: "We said hello to him many times. We always showed him respect. If anything he didn't show us or the boys respect bc he's always changed in his own locker room." So, did Rob simply forget about the numerous introductions? (He may need to lay off the pot smoking, possibly.) And why exactly does Rob think he can be a "locker room leader" when it's painfully obvious to everyone that he is phoning it in in TNA and is there solely for the paycheck? Let's face it: the only thing Rob can teach the young guys TNA at this point is how to botch moves and comb over their bald spots.
In an interview with The Score radio show, Nick and Matt addressed the RVD situation further but, first of all, talked some more about their departure. Matt repeated the earlier claim that their exit was mainly due to money and anger about how they were being used:
"It just comes down to money. We had crumby deals where you got paid-per-appearance. And we both had dreams to one day sign with a big professional wrestling company and when we got a TNA contract, I think we kinda jumped-the-gun. To tell you the truth, I don’t even think we looked at our contracts. We just said: 'Oh, man, a major promotion wants us, let's do it!' And we signed on the dotted line without even really reading it. At first, we were making pretty good money, we were on all the house shows and were on television shows and thought it was pretty cool. But after the second year, it slowed down, and we weren't making any money. And as time progressed, we went to the office and asked for help; we reached out and said, 'We like being here, we just need something more fair, some type of a guarantee...' and they didn't really want to do that. We also didn't like the way we were being used. We never wanted to split-up. When they said we would be X-Division wrestlers, we didn’t want to be lost in the shuffle. And when the agents couldn’t even tell whether we were heel or face, that’s when we decided it was time to get out.”
Addressing RVD, Matt said:
“We knew he was talking about us. At first, we were like why? I didn’t feel like either of us had any issues with Rob. Rob always seemed like a loner who just did his own thing. He’s not exactly the kind of guy that you would approach. I know for a fact we introduced ourselves to him.Every day we saw him at TV, we both said ‘hi’ to him. So he didn’t have the right to make comments like that. Just because we didn’t go to Rob specifically, I hope he didn’t take that personally. We asked for advice.If we needed any advise, we would go to veterans like Terry Taylor, D-Lo Brown, Tommy Dreamer or Al Snow. Just because we didn't go Rob specifically, doesn't mean anything personal.”
Nick then noted: "RVD just seemed like he was doing his own thing. He didn't seem to want to be approached. He was in his own locker room."